George Soros is buying JC Penney stock. Should you?

A legendary market-mover makes what some are calling a "crazy" bet

JC Penney
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Shares in JC Penney rose 11 percent today after legendary investor George Soros disclosed his 7.9 percent stake in the company. Soros now owns 17.4 million shares of a retail business that commentators have called everything from "truly depressing" to "an unmitigated disaster."

Pundits who are down on Penney certainly have a point: After announcing a 25 percent crash in sales for Q1, the retailer booted CEO Ron Johnson after just 17 months on the job and replaced him with his predecessor, Mike Ullman. By mid-April, the cash-strapped company had hired Blackstone Group and Clearwater Partners to help raise $1 billion in cash just to remain solvent. Shares have slid more than 50 percent from this time last year.

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Carmel Lobello is the business editor at TheWeek.com. Previously, she was an editor at DeathandTaxesMag.com.